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Anti-hunt campaigners outside the National Trust AGM at the Steam Museum in Swindon.
Anti-hunt campaigners outside the National Trust AGM at the Steam Museum in Swindon. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA
Anti-hunt campaigners outside the National Trust AGM at the Steam Museum in Swindon. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

National Trust defeats move to ban trail hunting on its land

This article is more than 6 years old

Board accused of bowing to hunting lobby after it uses proxy votes to sway result in its favour

The National Trust was accused of succumbing to pressure from the hunting lobby after a motion to ban trail hunting on the organisation’s land was narrowly defeated at its annual conference on Saturday, sparking warnings that some members would cancel their subscriptions in disgust.

Members, including the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, had backed the motion as a means of prohibiting trail hunting – in which hounds and riders follow a scent path laid earlier – which has long been regarded by animal rights campaigners and others as a means of circumventing the 2004 hunting ban.

While the motion was endorsed by 28,629 member votes, with 27,525 against, it was ultimately defeated after the counting of 3,460 proxy votes, which were authorised to be used at the discretion of other members and the trust’s board of trustees.

Before the vote, the charity’s board had recommended that the trail hunting should be allowed to continue following recent improvements in licensing conditions to further safeguard conservation and access on the trust’s land. Some 2,057 proxy votes were cast in favour.

Helen Beynon, an NT member who tabled the motion to halt the issuing of licences for trail hunting or the exercise by hunts of their hounds on trust land after witnessing one earlier this year, said: “I believe the only reason our motion has failed is because most National Trust members haven’t seen it with their own eyes. If they’d have seen what I’ve seen, then I have no doubt they would have voted with us.

“I was surprised that, despite all the evidence available to the trustees, and the fact that we were given no opportunity to respond to the terms of any new licence, they advised members to vote against our proposal. They have led people to believe that there is no problem. But there is a problem – hunts will now be able to continue their barbaric hobby on land which is meant to be protected for people and animals. It’s disgraceful, and the trust should be ashamed.”

National Trust chairman Tim Parker speaking at the AGM at the Steam Museum in Swindon Photograph: Ben Costigan/National Trust/PA

The League Against Cruel Sports, which had supported Beynon and other NT members in bringing the motion, described the result as a “massive backward step for justice and a shot in the arm for cruelty”.

A fraught debate saw supporters of the motion criticise recent changes introduced by the Trust, including banning the use of animal-based scents, as unworkable and questioned how the organisation would find the resources to monitor trail hunting if it continued.

Peter Martin, an NT member and chairman of the Badger Trust who supported the ban, said that badger setts were being routinely filled in during the hunting season, often burying badgers alive. “No organisation can license or permit illegal activities on your land. If you are not prepared to commit resources to monitor illegal activity and to ensure it does not take place on your land, then you must ban it,” he said.

Opponents accused those behind the motion of seeking to turn the issue into a political football. Among them was Ann Mallalieu, the Labour peer and president of the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance, who said that it was wrong for the trust to divert resources into such an issue. “Argue your case for a change in the law elsewhere, but do not damage this charity,” she said.

Orna Ni Chionna, a member of the trust’s board who outlined its case against the motion, insisted that things would be “substantially different” under the new guidelines introduced this year. Terriermen, traditionally involved in digging out foxes, were being banned from trust land, while the guidelines specified the use of non-animal-based scents to reduce the chances that foxes and other animals would be chased.

“This is a polarised subject, one in which we can’t afford to be driven by emotion,” she said, adding that the trust had to respond to the experience of staff, visitors and members. “I have seen the pressure that rural communities are under and the role hunting has played in supporting them, but it is not always pursued responsibly and when things go wrong it is unpleasant, to say the least. All this stretches the tolerance of our members, visitors and staff.”

A total of 79 annual licences were granted last year to applicants seeking to engage in trail hunting on trust lands. Licences are granted on the understanding that the hunt simulates a traditional chase, but without foxes being deliberately pursued or killed.

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